Author Dirk de Bruyn

The following interview with Marie Craven originated from an online interview after a film class viewing of a program of her films as we moved out of Covid. The Zoom transcriptions of that event were trawled an...

In 2022 the National Film and Sound Archive acquired the hand-made filmmaking material Paul Winkler constructed to make his innovative films from the the 1960’s to the present. Winkler is packing up his practic...

The man simply begins to decipher the inscription. He purses his lips, as if he is listening. You’ve seen that it’s not easy to figure out the inscription with your eyes, but our man deciphers it with his wound...

David Cox’s innovative engagement with moving image technology extends over numerous iterations, spanning analogue formats 16mm, 35mm and Super 8 to a creative engagement with gaming to 360 degree immersive pro...

Saidin Salkic is a Bosnian-Australian filmmaker whose recent prolific output includes Waiting for Sevdah (2017, 40 mins), Silence’s Crescendo (2018, 41 mins), The Shocking (2019, 27 mins) and The Human (2020, 4...

Peter Tammer’s Fear of the Dark (1985) is partly a fictional exploration and re-enactment of the process of murder and violent intent. It is also part Cinéma vérité documentary of actor Robert Ratti’s daily lif...

I spoke with Ana Vaz at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in 2020. I had not seen Ana since watching her first film Sacris Pulso in Australia (2007), which re-configures the film Brasiliários (19...

Dirk de Bruyn has been practicing, writing and curating in the area of experimental film and animation for over 35 years. He is currently teaching Animation and Digital Culture at Deakin University in Melbourne...

Five days before I got on a plane to SXSW, the world turned. All international travel was cancelled by my institution. A hammer blow. It took time to emotionally process this lost opportunity. There was no Covi...

Ann Arbor Film Festival is the longest running avant-garde and experimental film festival in North America. 1963 was its foundation year. This year would bring 40 programs, and 180 films selected from 3,500 sub...

The 9th Under the Radar animation film festival took place in the MuseumsQuartier, the Blickle Kino and the Filmhaus Kino in Vienna from 1-5 July. The event has a conference component which enables an in-depth ...

I am talking with Turkish filmmaker and video artist Köken Ergun at the International Film Festival Rotterdam about a documentary that all Australian and New Zealand audiences should see. Şehitler (Heroes), com...

The 48th edition of the International Film Festival of Rotterdam was IFFR director Bero Beyer’s fourth iteration. The four program groupings that he instigated in his inaugural year remain in place with special...

This is an abridged version of a longer article. Alice (1987 Switzerland/Czechoslovakia 86 mins) Source: ACMI/NLA Prod Co: Condor Features/Film Four International/Hessischer Rundfunk Prod: Peter-Christian F...

This essay examines Neil Taylor's animations, situated between the moving image, performance and sculpture and in the shadows of his recognised wire-based sculptural practice. Taylor's animations automatically ...

I like boring things. When you sit and look out of a window, that’s enjoyable. It takes up time. Yeah. Really, you see people looking out of their window all the time. I do. If you’re not looking out of a windo...

Animafest’s 24th iteration in Zagreb, Croatia brought two innovations. The Animafest Scanner Symposium and the third outdoor screening at the Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU), both noted by Daniel Šuljić...

This second visit to Belgrade, Serbia’s Alternativa Film/Video festival opened up a response to the parallel film histories encountered at last year’s attendance (documented in Senses of Cinema here) through Lj...

Have no respect, it’s only film. – Vassily Bourikas The Alternative Film/Video Festival in Belgrade has historically been one of a triumvirate of critical festivals, with Pula’sMAFAF (1965-1990) and Zagreb’s ...

The biennial Bangkok Experimental Film Festival had its sixth incarnation from 24 January to 5 February 2012 with a focus on the archive as inspiration for new critical artist films and as invocation to locate ...

Mike and Stefani is a neo-realist-style drama influenced, according to Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper (1), by the work of Roberto Rossellini and Robert Flaherty. Part re-enactment and part documentary, this crack ...

Public Lighting (2004 Canada 76 mins) Source, Filmmaker: Mike Hoolboom Art is always a witness, sometimes a witness to events before they actually occur. - Christian Boltanski (1) In Public Lighting M...

Early Abstractions (1957 USA 23 mins) Source: NFVLS Filmmaker: Harry Smith You shouldn't be looking at this as a continuity. Film frames are hieroglyphs, even when they look like actuality. You should t...

Luyken's films, an ever-growing body of work that premieres regularly at Rotterdam and were part of D-Light, are characterised by a concern with the metamorphosis of form and movement.

Rotterdam 2004 saw the celebration of Dutch Experimental Cinema with the launch of a book and retrospective program devoted to this area.

These two curators outline the background for the genesis of MM2 and D-Light.

Also included in D-Light, van Dam discusses at length his remarkable films as well as his strategies and filmmaking practice.

Brakhage (1998 USA 75 mins) Source: NLA/ACMI Prod Co: Sphinx Productions Prod: Alexa Frances-Shaw Dir, Scr: Jim Shedden Phot: Gerald Packer, Alexa Frances-Shaw Ed: Alexa Frances-Shaw, Isabella Pruska Mus...

The Decay of Fiction (2002 USA 73 mins) Source: Pat O'Neill Prod Co: Lookout Mountain Films Prod: Rebecca Hartzell, Pat O'Neill Dir, Scr, Ed: Pat O'Neill Phot: George Lockwood Sound: Cole Rushing Cast...

N-Zone (1970 Canada 45 mins) Source: ACMI Collections Prod Co: National Film Board of Canada Prod: Tom Daly Dir: Arthur Lipsett Scr: Arthur Lipsett, Henry Zemel Phot: Arthur Lipsett, Henry Zemel, Paul Le...

(Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2002) I was drawn to this book by the mention of the Other and Canadian film in the one sentence. I had an interest, having been immersed in the enterprise of Canadian independent...

This is an abridged version of a longer article. Alice (1987 Switzerland/Czechoslovakia 86 mins) Source: ACMI/NLA Prod Co: Condor Features/Film Four International/Hessischer Rundfunk Prod: Peter-Chris...

Paint in the leaves, the wind, insects buzzing in the summer heat, and then wait ... for the bird to sing. - from "How to Make the Likeness of a Bird" a poem by Jacques Prevert sung in The Ossuary Dimension...

Craig Baldwin was recently in Melbourne to spread the subversive word.